For I have said, “Graciousness will be built up forever; In the heavens You will establish Your faithfulness.”
Parallel translations
- WEB I indeed declare, “Love stands firm forever. You established the heavens. Your faithfulness is in them.”
- KJV For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.
- BSB For I have said, “Loving devotion is built up forever; in the heavens You establish Your faithfulness.”
- NKJV For I have said, “Mercy shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens.”
- NLT Your unfailing love will last forever. Your faithfulness is as enduring as the heavens.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Ethan declares that God's love stands firm forever and His faithfulness is as established as the heavens. God's covenant love is utterly secure and unshakable.
Overview
The psalmist affirms that God's steadfast love is eternally established, fixed like the heavens themselves. This confidence in God's faithfulness grounds the whole psalm. Such unshakable love is the foundation of the believer's hope, sealed in Christ in whom all God's promises are yes and amen.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 36:5Your loving kindness, Yahweh, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
- Neh 9:31“Nevertheless in your manifold mercies you did not make a full end of them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God.
- Ps 103:17But Yahweh’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children;
- Ps 89:5The heavens will praise your wonders, Yahweh; your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.
- Ps 119:89Yahweh, your word is settled in heaven forever.
- Neh 1:5and said, “I beg you, Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments:
- Ps 89:37It will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.” Selah.
- Ps 146:6who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever;
- Neh 9:17and refused to obey. They weren’t mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and didn’t forsake them.
- Heb 6:18that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.
- Ps 42:1For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.
- Eph 1:6–7to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
- Num 23:19God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
- Luke 1:50His mercy is for generations of generations on those who fear him.
- Matt 24:35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 89:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.